Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

"It was lovely to meet you, Emily," Gaius says as they step back out into the eternally-sunny façade of a field outside the cottage. "Your visit has been truly eye-opening."

"The pleasure was all mine. You've pushed my understanding of space forward by years of effort. I almost feel bad for how little I gave you," Emily replies, proving her words by reaching out and forming a blade of purple runes, slicing a hole in the space they inhabit and forming a crack with the clear image of The Mist array outside within its folds.

"Nonsense." Gaius chuckles, the purple flecks in his eyes glowing brighter as he reinforces his pocket dimension. "You may not have guaranteed my ascension, but you've shown me I'm on the correct path, and that's worth more than I can possibly put into words. If you ever have need of me, just send word."

"Sure, and if you ever decide to see the world again, just shoot me a message." She tosses him a communicator and steps through her portal, letting it close behind her as she comes face to face with a group of disgruntled Protectors.

She recognises them as the first group that came to combat her when she knocked out those watching, with not a single person she disabled in order to enter Gaius' pocket dimension present.

"Miss Coldstone." A bald man in their signature purple robes steps forward, the rest of his allies standing on guard and preparing their spells. "If you would follow me, please."

She nods and doesn't resist, letting him lead her back to the transportation room she entered through over a day ago.

"We won't question why you did what you did," her guide says as she follows him, blocked from behind by the rest of his group. "But while you'll experience no consequences, on word of the crown, please know that you are not welcome back here."

"Of course." Emily plays along, not mentioning the mark she left in a fold of Gaius' dimension to allow her to teleport back at will.

The transportation circle sends her back to one of the information hub's transport rooms, and Emily immediately sends out a wave of machina, using it to check on Pod's position.

That should be… classroom circle B-3.

The circle beneath her activates again, sending her closer to her apprentice. She walks down the corridor, passing the doors of various ongoing lessons and parting the already thin crowd of mages with her presence alone, ignoring their pursuing gazes and the already far too familiar murmur of rumours spreading. She stops before a lab with the door shut, glancing once towards 'Advanced Alchemy' glowing on the silver plaque in the centre and confirming that Pod's signature is inside before she pushes the door open and steps in.

She's met with bubbling cauldrons and a small group of five working alchemists. Four of them are unfamiliar, only one bearing the crest of an enemy, and the fifth is Ivor, leaning over his workstation with Pod and the teacher, Aileen Myrtle, on either side of him. Mensacus is looming in the back of the lab, but he's separated from the rest as if aware his presence makes them uncomfortable.

"Miss Coldstone!" Mrs Myrtle greets with an equal blend of excitement and admonishment in her clipped tone. "While I'm happy to see you again and would love to hear about your alchemical pursuits on your journey, I'm sure you still remember how much I dislike people interrupting my lessons. What if we were in the middle of a more volatile stage of our brewing? You could have just ruined days' worth of effort!"

"It's good to see you again too, Mrs Myrtle," Emily says, shutting the door behind her and striding over to Ivor's workstation. "I assure you, I checked I wouldn't be interrupting anything before I opened the door; I haven't forgotten simple lab safety since I left."

A short nod is all she gets in response as Mrs Myrtle pats Ivor's shoulder and moves to check on the student to his left's preparation of a stalk of vothral weed.

"Welcome back," Ivor signs, stepping away from his station to pull Emily into a hug.

Emily wordlessly accepts it, ignoring Pod's raised, surprised brow.

"It's been a while," she signs back after they part. "I hear you kept your word and looked after J. Thank you."

He waves her off and shakes his head.

"It's the least I could do. How have you been?"

"I'm much improved." Emily shrugs, turning her metal hand over a few times and drawing Ivor's gaze to it as she turns her attention to his work, scanning over his station to figure out what he's making. "War was fun, though. A muscle reinforcement brew?"

Ivor nods, not letting his eyes rest on her prosthetic for too long despite reading her words through the movements of her digits, following her gaze towards the table and letting out a frustrated huff.

"Yes. We've been given all but one of the final stabilising agents, and we need to work it out before it's needed, but I'm undecided between a sprinkle of dawn moth wings and a drop of rockthawn sap."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Emily wordlessly raises a brow, not needing to voice her offer as Ivor shakes his head.

"Just tell me it actually is one of them," he asks.

"It is."

"Good." Ivor reaches into the spatial pouch tied at his hip, the same one Emily gifted him with a pretty pattern woven into it by Juliana, and pulls out a small vial with a thin moth's wing that seems to glow with the warmth of the early-morning sun. "Because there's enough earthen and it needs something to bind."

Emily nods, confirming he made the right choice, and he relaxes into his brewing process. Emily is content to stand back and watch, putting together the occasional signs he throws her amidst his work.

"So, you're happy with the arm then?"

Emily nods, stimulating her emotional centres with machina and forming a small smile at his concern as her flesh fingers slowly caress their metal mirror.

"I'm not happy with how I lost it, but I couldn't have hoped for a better end result."

"Good."

They don't say anything else until Ivor finishes, pouring a passable, dark brown strengthening potion into a set of vials, and Mrs Myrtle dismisses him.

"Are you staying for long?" Ivor signs as they step out of the lab, with Pod and Mensacus silently following, as they head off down the hall towards the transportation circle.

"No, we'll be starting the purge soon and leaving Chroni straight after," Emily replies, watching his eyes widen in shock before settling into resolve in nearly an instant.

"Does the crown know?"

Emily nods, and he relaxes, letting out a breath as the tension his shoulders have held since she found him earlier slips away.

"Thank Goddess," he signs, tilting his head towards the heavens in an action that has Emily raising a brow, not remembering him as the religious type.

Ivor waves off her questioning gaze, so she marks it as insignificant and moves on, but nearly misses a step at his next gestures.

"I take it you aren't going to visit J."

There's surety in his signs, and Emily feels a fleeting sense of displeasure at how well he has read her, but she doesn't give it any machina to fuel it, and it thankfully vanishes quickly.

"No. She's already moved on, so I see no reason to disturb her. I'm about to cause enough unrest as is."

Ivor looks like he wants to say something but thinks better of it, shaking his head as they step into the transportation circle together.

"If that's your decision." He pulls Emily into a hug again, before stepping back to separate completely. "It was good to see you again. You should stay in The Dome a little longer when everything settles down. It'll be good to get everyone back together again: I haven't seen E and the pyro in a while."

"Sure." Emily nods, placing a hand on Pod's shoulder as they activate the circle below their feet in sync. "I'll swing by again before I take another trip into The Glade."

***

Stepping out through one of The Dome's phasing doors, Emily sends a message on a wave of machina to her troops waiting in the mist below, calling all of those carrying prisoners to a collection point.

"How are you for Mage Killer?" she asks Pod while preparing a new Teleportation spell to cast.

"I have enough for all the marked targets still present, and half that amount spare," he answers immediately.

"Okay. Wait here for two more days, then perform a full sweep of The Dome for any stragglers. I'll send you some more troops, and inform the crown and The Covenant's owner, so you should meet no resistance."

"Am I to use non-lethal force even when walking into a space they could have prepared?" Pod asks with a slightly nervous tone.

"No." Emily shakes her head to his relief. "There'll be an announcement tomorrow that should flush out any of those we need to help. Your reinforcements will be armed to kill, and if anyone's still hiding at that point… blow through the walls for all I care. You don't need to risk your safety for their sake."

"Understood."

"When you're done, head to the north of the city, beneath where Elisime is currently docked, and you'll find a spatial array waiting to bring you back on board," Emily says before activating her spell, grabbing Mensacus and the captured prisoners below and shattering them all into purple wisps of light.

They reform on Elisme, crowding one of Emily's larger workshops. She calls several droids from storage to move the prisoners to a suitable cargo hold, and several more to go and reinforce Pod, before leaving the ship with another, faster-to-prepare, teleportation spell: Blink. The spell carries her forty metres down from her current position, instead of linking to a pre-prepared anchor, and she falls towards the earth to create the promised array for her apprentice.

As she's carving spatial runes into the air and embedding a few purple crystals in the ground, Emily focuses on the video and audio feeds being transmitted back to the ship from the drones she sent out to spy on her target noble houses' main territories. She focuses on a few feeds that are stationary outside several estates, zooming in as far as her still-improving camera tech will allow and catching glimpses of the panicked-looking people inside.

Through one bird sitting innocently on a blooming pear tree in Ashdon, she gets a particularly good view into the study of House Hedera's Patriarch. He's sitting hunched over his desk with scrolls and communication crystals scattered in front of him, frantically making calls. A quick glance back through the bird's recording history tells Emily he's been that way for the past ten hours at least.

The most valuable data her scouts have gathered, though, comes from those still in the air, chasing after airships and, in one case, a convoy of land vehicles. Most of them are covered in enchantments Emily can read from the runes dotting their outer shells, aimed towards preventing magical detection and blocking perception. It would have been near impossible for Emily to catch them if she hadn't had birds watching before they took off, and, tracing their paths, it looks like most are heading to Ashdon, with only a few heading to non-descript smaller settlements to hide.

Looks like I should expect strong resistance from the Hederas. I'll send a few presents to intercept some of their allies… mark the ships carrying fourth circle mages and remove them early… perfect. That should keep them busy while I deal with the targets hiding in the south. Looks like the Galanthias are first.

Emily relays a signal through Elisime, sending out a set of commands to the Cutters she released during her display with Virgil, redirecting them towards the convoys of ships heading for Ashdon. She finishes carving a lock into the new one-time teleportation array, binding it to only activate with Pod's blood, and Blinks back up into her ship, firing the engines with a roar that echoes out across the city as they spark with machina.

Elisime lurches into motion, flying low over Chroni as she picks up speed, heading southwest to begin the purge.